Although the lawsuit’s existence was covered widely in the media, the allegations remained hidden , as every legal document filed in the case is under seal. When a court document is filed under seal, the public loses the right to inspect these documents.

This is a massive case alleging a worldwide pedophile ring, which the public has an interest in discovering. And no one has any idea who is leading this pedophile ring or how many people they have allegedly victimized.

At considerable financial expense and personal risk (Epstein is well-connected and dangerous, counting Bill Clinton as among his closest friends), Cernovich sued because taking on the rich and powerful is what real journalists do. The trial court denied Cernovich’s motion to unseal records, and Cernovich appealed.

Today the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Files filed an amicus curie brief in support of Cernovich’s arguments.

This Court has long recognized that access to judicial documents is essential to the fostering of a well-informed citizenry and the integrity of our judicial system. Amici write to emphasize their concern with the breadth of the sealing permitted by the district court in this case, which is contrary to both the common law and First Amendment presumptions of access…. The strong public interest in access to the judicial records at issue in this case weighs in favor of their disclosure, and under the common law and First Amendment presumptions of access, no compelling interest exists to seal them. For the reasons set forth herein and in Appellants’ briefs, amici respectfully urge this Court to reverse the district court’s order.

Many people attack Mike Cernovich’s good name and call him fake news.

How may of those people have paid $25,000 out of their own pockets to file a lawsuit to expose billionaire pedophiles? (The lawsuit was paid for with Patreon funds, and Cernovich is grateful to his backers.)

Monday, September 18, 2017 9:16 PM

Wilmer Hale, which bills clients at $1,000 an hour, has threatened lawyer, author, and journalist Mike Cernovich with a frivolous lawsuit in retaliation for Cernovich’s exercise of his free speech rights. Cernovich has retained counsel and will fight this SLAPP lawsuit aggressively.

The lawsuit involves an image that originally appeared in an article on Breitbart. Transformative in nature, the article illustrated Pepe in a cemetery. I posted the image as a thumb nail to my article, where I described the “alt-right” political movement, and disavowed any involvement with it.

This Pepe image is clearly fair use, it’s protected under the First Amendment, and any lawsuit threat is frivolous.

The image from Breitbart is clearly fair use, as is nearly every other Pepe meme floating around online.

What’s weird is that I don’t even care about Pepe and hardly ever talked about him. Indeed Wilmer Hale went to the press on Monday in an effect to brag about attacking me. Rather than address this matter discretely, Wilmer Hale wants to file a high profile lawsuit against me.

My lawyer will be responding soon, and I will post the letter once it’s available.

This lawsuit threat is frivolous, and moreover, contains a knowing falsehood. The letter links to an article where I specifically disclaim any involvement with the alt-right. Thus this lawyer has committed fraud by lying about my being “alt-right.”

Monday, September 18, 2017 5:56 PM

WASHINGTON, D.C. 18 SEP 2017. Berkeley “Free Speech Week,” an event organized by student group the Berkeley Patriot and underwritten by MILO Inc., will occur as scheduled, running from September 24 to September 27 on the campus of UC Berkeley, despite attempts by the university to use bureaucratic maneuvers and strategic media leaks to disrupt the event and dissuade headline speakers from attending.

The Berkeley Patriot student group has worked for months to secure all necessary permits, permissions, and venue reservations for the event — a celebration of conservative and libertarian voices on campus — including securing space for four days on Upper Sproul, Lower Sproul, Anna Head Hall, Wheeler Hall, and the Zellerbach auditorium.

The paperwork was filed on deadline, and MILO, Inc. transferred the required $65,758.76 to UC Berkeley to arrive at 8 AM ET Monday. Nevertheless, the University has not yet indicated it will grant access to Wheeler and Zellerbach . This move represents the latest in a stream of administrative efforts by UC Berkeley officials to shut down or damage Free Speech Week.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017 7:55 PM

“Floyd Lee Corkins went on a shooting spree after reading the SPLC’s website, a crime they never disavowed.” This is all anyone should ever say when asked about the SPLC, and yet you don’t hear Republicans or even Trump himself put these domestic terrorist groups and their media enablers on their back feet.

The Family Research Council shooter, who pleaded guilty today to a terrorism charge, picked his target off a “hate map” on the website of the ultra-liberal Southern Poverty Law Center which is upset with the conservative group’s opposition to gay rights.

Floyd Lee Corkins II pleaded guilty to three charges including a charge of committing an act of terrorism related to the August 15, 2012 injuring of FRC’s guard. He told the FBI that he wanted to kill anti-gay targets and went to the [SPLC’s] website for ideas.

Why does no one talk about this? Why does the media cite the SPLC as a disinterested group when they incite terrorism?

The big lesson from Bannon’s appearance on 60 Minutes is to push back.

Steven Bannon made Charlie Rose admit that David Duke is the media’s creation. Watch this spectacular clip, which may be one of the most import media clips of the year.

The moment Charlie Rose lost it, was stunned into silence as he realizes the media is who owns David Duke now. https://t.co/PCrqGvTARS

Bannon: David Duke shows up for every media opportunity because you guys put the cameras on him.

Rose: [Gestures in self-defense] Well….But….Wait….

Why don’t Republicans, when asked about David Duke, flip the script and ask the media why they give saturation coverage to someone whose only platform is the media? The media promotes David Duke.

In a traditional media interview, the press asks questions. The person being questioned either answers the questions directly or evades them. But the power always lies with the media, and few understand how to flip the power dynamic.

During the 60 Minutes interview with Charlie Rose, Bannon repeatedly questioned the premise of the question, and called out media bias. For example when called a racist, Bannon replied:

“I don’t need to be lectured–by a bunch of– by a bunch of limousine liberals, okay, from the Upper East Side of New York and from the Hamptons, okay, about any of this. My lived experience is that.”

Why do Republicans let the media lecture and berate them? Why do they refuse to call out the media for heralding the SPLC as a hate watch group, when in fact the SPLC has inspired domestic terror?

Other than Steve Bannon, no major media figure has confronted the media for acting as scribes for Hillary Clinton and other high-profile Democrats.

In his own 60 Minutes interview, Mike Cernovich got Scott Pelly to admit he takes the Clinton campaign on its word, and does not independently investigate campaign officials:

Cernovich: She had a seizure and froze up walking into her motorcade that day.

Pelley: Well, she had pneumonia. I mean —

Cernovich: How do you know? Who told you that?

Pelley: Well, the campaign told us that.

Cernovich: Why would you trust the campaign?

Pelley: The point is you didn’t talk to anybody who’d ever examined Hillary Clinton.

Cernovich: I don’t take anything Hillary Clinton is gonna say at all as true. I’m not gonna take her on her word. The media says we’re not gonna take Donald Trump on his word. And that’s why we are in these different universes.

That story got so much traction, it had to be denied not only by Clinton's doctor, but by the National Parkinson's Foundation. (2/2) https://t.co/SLu19bN6Gr

Republicans must never legitimize the SPLC, and must always remind the press that the SPLC inspired terrorism. Be more like Bannon. Let the press ask their questions, sure, but you have every right to ask questions of your own, and to push back against rigged and loaded questions.

Saturday, September 9, 2017 6:17 PM

When national security reporter Mike Cernovich attended a White House press briefing, Brian Karem was triggered. He stalked Cernovich outside of the press briefing room. Making wild and erratic hand gestures at Cernovich, Karem was attempting to force Cernovich to lose his cool. You can watch the video here:

That goof who went off during press briefing yesterday stalked me and tried hitting me, totally unstable. https://t.co/zBoW2aVbzs

Karem kept jabbing his finger into Cernovich’s face, on the White House lawn, demonstrating an intent to commit violence. Sensing Karem was unhinged, Cernovich spoke to him with his hands at “parade rest,” as a way to claim the moral high ground.

No one in the White House Press Association chastised Karem for this clear breach of civility. We all know what would have happened if Cernovich had chased down a reporter and making threatening hand gestures. It’d have been the biggest story of the day, with calls to ban Cernovich from the White House. None of that happens here, of course, because the media does not apply objective rules or standards to reporters. If you’re part of “the club,” you can do whatever you like.

Cernovich maintained a firm but peaceful posture throughout the attack.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017 3:57 PM

A normal person should never talk to the media because whatever they write, fairly or unfairly, will most likely be the first result in a Google search for you. Thus I’ve said for years that you should never talk to the media. Like most of my writing, this rule is an extreme pushback against conventional wisdom, which holds that talking to the media would be a great experience for you.

Now a lot of people on the right will never talk to the media, and that’s cool, but my own position has changed over the years.

Here is why I started talking to the media after a lengthy blackout period.

I bitch about no-platform policies. An outright refusal to talk to every reporter is another form of no-platforming. Some of these people are actually decent human beings.

Our country is losing its collective mind. Talking to each other keeps us farther away from a civil war. If someone shot up a newspaper office, I would have a huge problem with this! There are in people in there who are good people. We shouldn’t use rhetoric that incites media violence, @Cernovich/the-young-turks-and-cenk-uygur-inspired-terrorism-multiple-shooters-confirm-6140bb23ed08" target="_blank">that’s what the SPLC does when it creates a “hate list,” which Floyd Lee Corkins used before going on a mass shooting.

“The media” is made up of reporters, who are people. A conversation with them is an opportunity to persuade them that your worldview is correct and good. Likewise their interviews and questions are their effort to persuade you that they are correct. We call this being human beings.

People are people, and one day you may need some media coverage. If you’ve insulted journalists for the better part of a year, who is going to tell the story of you being screwed over, regardless of how just your claim is?

Talking to the media is generally overrated once you have the “cool guy” stuff. I’ve been profiled in all the big magazines and papers and been on @Cernovich/15-million-people-watch-cernovich-on-60-minutes-making-cbs-the-1-show-by-a-landslide-cerno60-3b723da4f52e" target="_blank">60 minutes in front of over 15 million people. That’s sort of fun to be able to say at parties, but it doesn’t sell books. (Podcasts sell books, blog posts sell books, media coverage gets you more media coverage.)

But I’ve met some otherwise people decent people. It’s not really true that most people in media are horrible. Most are working stiffs like you and me, chasing the dragon of success.

That said, there’s no need to dance like a puppet for the media. One photojournalist for a nationwide publication wanted me to pose for a picture making an angry face. I declined, he was annoyed, but whatever. (He wanted a picture of me being angry to show the world what an angry guy I am, but that’s not the truth. I’m easy going unless provoked.)

Other times media people have tried to characterize my views unfairly, and I correct them rather than go along with it. For example, they’ll say, “You have been described as [something bad],” and I stop right there and address the lies rather than say, “Yes.” Because if the person wants to set me up, he’ll be able to say, “Cernovich admits he has often been described as [something bad].”

Remember these Rules when talking to the media.

Journalists aren’t your PR agents. This has several implications. The biggest implication is that, regardless of how nice or polite they are, their job isn’t to do you any favors. Their job is to write their story.

As a corollary to the above, don’t get butt hurt by a hit pieces. They have the right to write whatever they want, as long as it’s true. And in any event, the “truth” about you is socially constructed. Their truth about you will differ about your mom’s or spouse’s truth about you. Unless we’re talking physics, there is no “objective truth,” and that’s especially true when describing people.

Your job is to tell the truth about whatever you’re talking out, and this means using rhetoric and persuasion to craft a compelling narrative. If you’ve never had a successful sales career, you probably aren’t equipped to talk to journalists. (99% of people should not talk to the media.)

Journalists do this for a living, they are pros and you are not. Everyone who walks onto a car lot is convinced he or she is going to get a great deal. This is a lie we tell ourselves to preserve our egos. You’ll rarely get the best of a trained reporter, which is why you should think thrice before agreeing to a media interview.

Journalists rarely fabricate facts. Most media companies are run by suits with legal departments who saw what happened to Gawker. It’s a myth that most journalism is outright fabrication.

99% of the time what you read in the papers is spin.

They aren’t going to lie about what you said, but they may talk to you for three hours to get one sentence they can use against you. Generally speaking you should keep interviews short, and preferably in writing.

That said, I would never be alone with an SJW reporter. SJWs are a special class of people who are disturbed and will imagine events that didn’t happen. As a rule, it’s best to avoid Mic, The Bustle, and any Gawker or former-Gawker affiliated websites. If you speak to someone from an SJW-run outlet, have a witness with you at all times. You may be falsely accused of a crime, and at best, they will willfully misrepresent you words and quote you out of context. That Google hit for your name will show up forever to have a whopping 5,000 page views you got at Mic. Stupid!

Do some homework on the reporter you’re going to meet. Read a few of her articles. If you don’t like the vibe, you won’t like her. It also helps to dig up some dirt about the journalist or the journalist’s network. If they want to play dirty, be sure to have your own cards to deal from the bottom of the deck.

Journalists have a right to ask you any question, you have the right to provide any answer to their questions. You have the right to ask questions.

Journalists like to say, “That’s not the question I asked.” Remind them, YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME. If they don’t like your answer, they can discontinue the interview. No one is a slave here, and no one is “in charge.” You can walk away and they can walk away.

The only rule that matters with hit pieces.

If you’re smashed in the head, smile and show strength. Ten years ago, the Megyn Kelly special on Alex Jones would have devastating. Alex let Kelly’s crew put him under a heat lamp, which caused his forehead to sweat profusely. He let her belabor her points and drag him into the weeds. But that’s not what people remember.

People remember Alex laughing in studio and popping a bottle of champaign, as he toasted his win over Megyn Kelly.

The only mistakes you can make when hit by the media are to apologize and hide. Live stream your reaction, smile, have fun, use satire, and even break out that nice bottle of wine (if that’s your thing) to celebrate victory.

It doesn’t matter if you feel like crawling in a hole. You can never show weakness, this says you are a victim, and no one respects a victim. As Arnold said before he became an sanctimonious cuck, “You have to remember something: Everybody pities the weak; jealousy you have to earn.”

You know your reaction to a hit piece is the right one when people are angry at you. It means you didn’t submit, you didn’t bow down, and because this is what others would do, you’ve triggered jealousy.

— — —

Mike Cernovich is a journalist, author, and filmmaker. His best-selling book Gorilla Mindset will help you prepare for media interviews and other high energy events.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017 11:59 PM

“Our democracy has no room for inciting violence or endangering the public, no matter the ideology of those who commit such acts. The violent actions of people calling themselves antifa in Berkeley this weekend deserve unequivocal condemnation, and the perpetrators should be arrested and prosecuted.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who praised ANTIFA after President Donald Trump’s Charlottesville remark calling out violence on “both sides,” has yet to disavow ANTIFA.

ANTIFA has been praised by many on-air figures, including Van Jones and Don Lemon.

Journalist Mike Cernovich asked several White House journalists why they wouldn’t report on alt-left terror, and was laughed at by a bloodthirsty media, which encourages and incites violence against Trump supporters.

After today's press briefing was compete, a journalist asked about political violence by the left. Real journalism, finally! https://t.co/EjLuBk3dZR

Tuesday, August 29, 2017 7:53 PM

“Don’t work with any of those pro-Trump Super PACs,” a high level White Official told me, “as Pence controls them all.” Was this a legitimate scoop or D.C. intra-Trumpism rivalry? I went to find out.

As an outsider, I don’t have any friends inside the Trump administration. Sources sure, lots of those, and what the media won’t tell you is that sources are people. Sources have the same petty beefs as the rest of us, and they’ll lie and play others to get what they want. Treating sources as more than human allows us to live by the illusion that what we read in the media can be trusted, because after all, there are sources!

Mike Anton keeps his job, Heritage sells out in exchange for access to McMaster.

Mike Anton, communications director at the NSC, made a lot of promises to the Heritage Foundation and other think tanks and media outlets during the Fire McMaster campaign launched by American nationalists and populists.

“He was one the phone with everyone,” a person who received a call from Anton, told me. “In this town, it’s all about access, and that’s what Anton promised,” the source continued.

In exchange for puff pieces Heritage and others would have access to McMaster. The ploy worked. Unprincipled propaganda pieces flowed like White House leaks from Dina Powell.

“Anton is lost,” a person involved in the Trump Transition team told me, “He completely sold out to McMaster.”

Ben Rhodes runs the NSC.

Anton was hired as part of a strategy to bring in people who understand Trump’s national security worldview. Colin Kahl and Ben Rhodes sought to oust Anton and others, labelling them the Axis of Ideologues, in contrast to the Axis of Adults.

The NSC is staffed with several Rhodes loyalists, whom McMaster has gone to great lengths to protect. McMaster held a public town hall to say there is no such thing as an Obama holdover.

Meanwhile McMaster purged anyone seen as having an “American first” foreign policy vision.

Mike Anton’s job is safe, for now anyway, although it’s up to Anton to ask whether he is dying the thousand deaths of a coward by bending the knee to McMaster.

Mike Pence, the Silent Killer.

“Mike Pence, like heart disease, is a silent killer,” a high level political operative answered in my response to the pro-Trump Super PAC question. She continued, “All those Super PACs are run by Pence.”

After Flynn apologized to Pence, the vice president seemed open to allowing Flynn to remain in place, according to a senior administration official. But Reince Priebus, Trump’s chief of staff who had also come to Flynn’s defense in January, “didn’t want to let it go,” the official added.

“People can finger Reince all they want,” someone close to Flynn told me, “But everyone knows it was Pence who wanted Flynn out.”

The Freedom Caucus is seen as being loyal to Ted Cruz rather than Trump, and it’s a great source of frustration that Trump can’t stop the Freedom Caucus.

“Trump doesn’t seem to realize that those guys,” a data analyst said in reference to the Freedom Caucus, “won every district he won in by a larger margin. Picking a fight with them is stupid.”

Of course as we’ve seen how he treats people like General Flynn, Peter Thiel, Mooch, and Bannon while rewarding and protecting never Trumper’s like Brian Hook, Nikki Haley, and Dina Power. It’s up to Trump to earn loyalty.

So…What is up with those pro-Trump super PACs?

The consensus within Trump’s inner circle is that Pence controls the Super PAC, and multiple people expressed their frustration about the Super PAC situation.

“All they want to do is another ad buy to collect their 15% commission,” one person who quit doing Republican consulting out of disgust with the RNC told me, “even though everyone knows TV ads don’t work.”

I continually ask this question, “Why does everyone in Trumpland come to ME with their problems?” It’s great for me as a journalist to have an inside look at the West Wing and every other department in the Federal Government, but why is there no one in Trumpland to talk to Trump supporters?

Can’t one of these “pro-Trump” Super PACs set up a hotline or web page to collect information about what’s happening to the people who, at great personal and professional risk, backed Trump? Of course they can, and they haven’t.

There doesn’t appear to be any pro-Trump support infrastructure. There’s no legal support for Trump backers who are attacked for wearing a Trump hat. What are these pro-Trump groups doing?

“Trump doesn’t care about his people,” a top level GOP adviser told me in a motherly tone of voice, “and people are seeing that.”

“You may as well get while the getting is good,” her companion replied, wryly observing that, “If they money is there, take it, it’s not like Trump would know what to do with it.”

(The general disdain for Trump was a common theme of my trip to D.C., and most of my interviews were with early Trump backers.)

Trump’s general disinterest in governing Trumpland is reflected in the Super PAC failure. Not only is Trump not taking care of his people, including his Schedule C employees who only kept their jobs after I did an expose on Johnny DeStefano, he doesn’t have anyone watching his back.

I live online and haven’t seen much action from any of these pro-Trump groups. As best as I can tell, they haven’t even sent Bill Mitchell any cash. Bill annoys me but undoubtedly has a large base of Trump supporters. Why wouldn’t someone reward those efforts?

The most effective Trump messaging is coming from prominent social media accounts and online meme makers. When is the last time a pro-Trump video, produced by these rich Super PACs, went viral? At least everyone has a nice office (in some cases co-located at the RNC).

When sources confided in me weeks ago that General Kelly confiscated Trump’s cell phone, I hesitated to report it. How could that be true?

“Oh it’s true, but Kelly gave him his phone back,” a source told me yesterday, “but Kelly listens in most of the time. We call it the ‘party line,’” a reference to a 90s trend where multiple people would call into a phone line to chat.

John Bolton’s recent essay today confirms the house arrest meme. In his essay agitating for war with Iran, Bolton wrote:

I offer the Iran nonpaper now as a public service, since staff changes at the White House have made presenting it to President Trump impossible. Although he was once kind enough to tell me to “come in and see me any time,” those days are now over.

Whatever you think of Bolton (no one will accuse me of being a fan boy), this is a startling development.

The Trump Tax

The Trump tax refers to cost of lost business, injury to reputation, and drama among friendships people pay by supporting Trump. “After what they did to Thiel,” a WH source told me with some frustration, “Who is willing to pay the Trump tax?”

Asked what he meant about Thiel, the official continued, “Peter Thiel risked his reputation to help Trump while Gary Cohn was bundling donations for Hillary. Ask yourself who has more power in the Administration, and what that says about Trump.” (It’s worth noting that Cohn hadn’t actually bundled donations for Clinton during this election cycle, and this source was using a figure of speech.)

Not so Great Again dot Gov

“When you attend the next WH briefing, ask Sarah how many people were hired from Great Again dot gov,” a person with an intricate understanding of the Trump transition (who is also on a first name basis with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders) suggested to me.

“See if you can file a FOIA for resumes from Great Again,” another person involved in the Trump transition advised, “and then cross-reference that to current staffers.”

“I’ll bet you find zero hires,” he concluded.

“The first batch of staffers had some Trump and Pence people, the second batch were Pence people, and the latest batch are Bush people,” someone familiar with WH staffing decisions told me.

“You can’t get Trump people hired,” someone who has hiring authority, said over a glass of California red zinfandel.

“They tried taking my GS from me,” another appointee said. GS is the government pay scale, and a higher GS means more pay. Even when Trump supporters are given positions within the administration, they find themselves downgraded to a lower GS. This practice is almost certainly illegal, as the GS scales are fixed by regulation.

Bannon and the future of Breitbart

“Steve’s big mistake was not bringing more people into the White House,” a long-time Bannon confidant said of his recent departure. “He didn’t understand the bureaucracy, you can’t just have one or two idea people. You need buy in from dozens of people across theagencies,” a deep state operative (yes some of them like me) said of Bannon’s grand ambitions.

The unanimous consensus about Bannon was that he didn’t realize, in the words of a long-time politico who has authored multiple NY Times best selling books on policy, “how dirty and mean this City is.”

For his part, Bannon is in great spirits, multiple people close to him have confirmed. “He was hated every day at the WH, now he’s around people who like him.”

“Steve has even started a green juice regime and hired a trainer,” a Breitbart staffer said of Bannon’s recent plans to rebalance his life.

Jared’s little helpers.

Unlike Trump, Jared Kushner has had no trouble hiring loyalists, who he sends to meetings they aren’t cleared to attend.

One Cabinet official (who I won’t name to protect sources) kicked out one of Jared’s little helpers who was snooping around at a meeting. “He has no business in here,” this Cabinet official said out loud as the little helper blushed.

Tillerson out, Nikki Haley in, and Dina Powell to the UN.

Rex Tillerson, who planned on staying until December, now wants out, as everyone knows. Nikki Haley will take his position, with Dina Powell subbing in at the UN.

“This would be a great move,” one source told me when I said that Powell had repeatedly undermined Trump, “because then Powell won’t have much to leak from the UN.”

Powell is is the current all-star leaker. Having Powell outside of the White House was be a net gain for Trump, these sources revealed.

Trump’s phone calls with Maggie Haberman.

“The White House press team calls Maggie when they want to know what Trump is thinking,” someone with direct knowledge of the communications joked, “because Trump talks to her every night.” Multiple people insist Trump has regular phone calls with Haberman.

This, like the phone confiscation story, sounded apocryphal.

“Oh it’s true,” someone close to Trump told me in frustration, “and none of us understand why he talks to her.”

Why General Kelly allows Trump to talk to Haberman but not John Bolton is anyone’s guess, although it could be that Kelly is keeping out Bolton to protect McMaster, and Kelly and McMaster formed an early alliance against Bannon.

In part 2 I’ll cover drama, leaks, and some tabloid stuff, including a rumored affair between a CNN analyst and high profile lobbyist. Subscribe here for updates.